Dead Girl's Wish

SEATTLE (AP) — One year after 9-year-old Rachel Beckwith's death from a car crash inspired people around the world to donate more than $1 million to a charity in her honor, and her mom is in Ethiopia this week visiting the water wells Rachel's philanthropy made possible.

Rachel had hoped to raise $300 to bring clean water to an African village when she asked her friends and family to give money to the group "charity: water," instead of buying her presents. She was close to that goal in July 2011 when she was killed in a 13-car pileup on Interstate 90 near her Bellevue, Wash., home. Support for her cause surged and nearly 32,000 people donated $1.27 million by the time the charity closed her campaign in October.

Her mom, Samantha Paul, her parents, her pastor and some leaders from charity: water arrived in Ethiopia this week. They were greeted with a parade, welcome parties, signs, poems, speeches and an invitation to plant a tree in a new community park named for Rachel